


I Put a Spell On You

by ohjustpeachy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Halloween Costumes, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-09-28 17:30:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20429762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustpeachy/pseuds/ohjustpeachy
Summary: Steve and Tony share a moment after a whirlwind Halloween party.





	I Put a Spell On You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cachette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cachette/gifts).
  * Inspired by [After the Party [Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16473128) by [Cachette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cachette/pseuds/Cachette). 

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Steve grumbles, adjusting the halo on his head. “I look like a kindergartener’s art project gone wrong,” he says.

The problem was, of course, that Tony could talk Steve into just about anything. Tony could suggest getting into a rocket ship to the moon, and Steve would shake his head and follow, just as long as Tony would be there too. So really, in comparison, a last minute Halloween party probably wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Not that Steve would be saying that out loud this evening. 

“Well, I made it, so are you really that far off?” Tony gives him a Cheshire Cat smile from the kitchen, where he stands in a deep red devil costume that looks _ way _ too good on him. Steve wasn’t going to survive this, he really wasn’t. It was just a shirt, dark red and perfectly pressed, even though Tony claimed he found it in the back of his closet, and the addition of dark jeans, horns, and a tail completed the look. Seriously, no one was supposed to look this good on Halloween. You were supposed to look funny or scary or exactly like the comparison photo you posted on Instagram, not… _ edible _. Steve flushes at the thought, as if Tony can hear it.

“Come on, Steve, it’ll be fun! And you look good. Everyone’s going to be drinking too much to even think about your halo. Besides, it’s so fitting, Tony and Steve, devil and angel. Engineering and art. Opposites in every way, but still managing not to kill each other after four years,” Tony says gleefully.

Four years. Four Halloweens. Countless opportunities for Steve to have told Tony, his best friend, his roommate, how he felt, but hadn’t. Because Steve didn't want anything to change, didn’t want to ruin what they already had, this friendship he’d come to love and trust and depend on, so he’d been quietly in love with Tony Stark since their first week as roommates years ago. _ Pathetic. _

“Don’t speak too soon,” Steve warns. “I might just kill you for this one.” He gestured to his white t-shirt and jeans, the halo. All of it is an exercise in insanity. 

“You would never, you’d miss me too much,” Tony quips, tapping the halo lightly. 

It wasn’t like Steve could argue.

“Seriously, how did I end up here? I went from not wanting anything to do with Halloween to wearing a last minute angel costume, about to have a million strangers in our apartment to celebrate what is arguably the worst holiday of the year. Where did I go wrong?” Steve groans, fidgeting with his halo. It was made of pipe cleaners and looked ridiculous, and he should really get around to asking why Tony, of all people, had pipe cleaners lying around to begin with. 

“Come on Steve, live a little. Besides, I think I hear our first guests out in the hallway…” Tony winks at him, making Steve’s stomach twist, before running to throw the door open. It was just Bucky and Sam, thankfully, but footsteps on the stairs told Steve the rest of their friends (and friends of friends) were right behind them. 

It was going to be a very long night indeed. 

Steve watches as Tony throws an arm around Rhodey, kisses Bucky’s cheek, and playfully tickles Pepper’s side before sighing heavily and slinking off to the kitchen to find a drink. Tony was so affectionate with the people he loved that Steve couldn’t always bear to be around it, his skin prickling where Tony _ wasn’t _ touching him. Though it wasn’t like Tony _ never _ touched Steve, or made a concerted effort to keep his hands to himself. They had spent way too many weekends recovering from hangovers on the couch together, or late nights studying sprawled out together to _ never _ touch, but the casual, light kind of touches that Tony seemed to have at the ready for everyone else sometimes hurt to watch. 

Steve was grabbing a beer from the massive cooler Tony had set up in the kitchen when he hears footsteps behind him and turns around. Bucky was standing in the door, his hands on his hips. 

“In here pouting?” Bucky asks with a knowing smile. 

“I’m not pouting, just wanted a drink and a breather; I don’t think I know even half of these people, where does Tony find them?” Steve says with a roll of his eyes. 

Bucky shrugs. “He’s a likeable enough guy, people want to hangout with him. You should see him in class, he’s like a magnet.” Bucky and Tony had a bunch of classes together over the years, both being engineering majors. They’d become fast friends, and Tony had been delighted that he got along so well with Steve’s lifelong best friend. 

“We’re meant to be Steve,” Tony had declared, way back in freshman year. Steve still remembers the heat on his cheeks, how he’d wished Tony wouldn’t make jokes like that. 

A magnet is a fitting description of Tony, though, Steve can admit. _ He’d _ been drawn to him almost since day one. Sure, Tony had money and threw the biggest and best parties on campus, but he was _ nice _ too. Everyone was welcome at their apartment until they proved otherwise. Steve can think of at least five times in recent memory when he’d seen Tony swiftly move girls away from lechy guys who wouldn’t leave them alone, always escorting the guy to the door and offering to walk the girls home or call them an Uber. Things like that should be common courtesy, but in four years Steve had seen enough to know that not everyone had that. 

“You know,” Bucky says, dragging Steve out of his own head and back to the party going on around them. And here it was, The Talk. Bucky knew how he felt about Tony, because Steve had to tell _ someone _, and because he knew Steve better than anyone, and had caught on pretty quickly regardless. But they’d never really discussed the fact that Steve was clearly head over heels without any intention of acting on it. But that was about to change, if Bucky’s face was anything to go by. 

“Bucky, please,” Steve stops him. 

“No, _ you _ please. Listen to me, okay? You can’t be this passive about someone you care about so much. You’re both too afraid of rocking the boat and nothing’s going to happen. Would you rather go on this way, only to graduate and both wonder _ what if _ forever? What if he meets someone else and you stay friends and you have to endure the rest of your life as just _ Tony Stark’s old college roommate? _ You deserve more than that, that’s all. I think you should go for it. And anyway, I know he’s crazy about you,” Bucky says. 

But just then, Tony comes stumbling in with Rhodey, his arms around his waist this time, and Steve gives Bucky a dark look. He polishes off the beer he’d been drinking as Bucky spoke, tosses it into the already overflowing recycle bin, and grabs another one. The living room was probably quieter, and Steve stalks off in that direction.

When he gets there, he throws himself down onto the corner of the couch, and wonders how much longer he had to keep this up before he could tear the halo from his head and go to bed. An hour or so goes by, and Steve downs a few more beers, enough to be a little buzzed and keep the evening bearable as it wore on, alert enough to make sure Tony and his friends were okay, too. But when he sees Tony come loping into the room with his arm through Natasha’s, Steve decides he’s had enough, and makes his way to his room. 

Tony didn’t even _ talk _ to Natasha that much, and here he was, strolling through the room with her. It’s not that Steve begrudged anyone the affection it was just … he was _ right here _ . Did Tony find him such an undesirable prospect that he didn’t even _ try _? Steve was about to whip the door shut when a strong hand held it firm, and Steve looks up, ready to tell some wayward couple that his room was off limits, but finds only Tony’s face, grinning at him. 

“Steven, you can’t go to bed already,” Tony tells him. 

“I just wanted some quiet, that’s all. I don’t know these people,” Steve sighs. “Everyone is pairing up and making out all over our couches. I swear, someone almost sat on me earlier.” He tries for light-hearted but he sounds sad and lonely and he knows it. 

“I’m out there,” Tony reminds him. “You kept leaving the room every time I came in, though.” 

Tony had noticed that? Steve’s stomach churns with guilt. Apparently he was only good at hiding certain feelings, then. 

“Really? I didn’t… notice.” An obvious lie. They were inseparable in most situations, and Steve had seen Tony at plenty of parties. Even _ he _ wasn’t sure why he was being so sensitive to it tonight. 

Tony stares at him. He’s so close, Steve’s convinced that if he were anyone else, Tony’s hands would already be on him in some way. He sighs.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says, defeated. Maybe Bucky was right, and his bleak picture of never being more than Tony’s college roommate is all he would ever have. It was better than _ nothing, _ but there was so much more he wanted if he could just… 

“Don’t be sorry. You’re… God, you’re so good, Steve,” Tony tells him suddenly. He stares at Steve, like he’s making sure he’s really listening. 

“Really. You are. Kind and smart and generous and funnier than anyone realizes, which I love. It’s like being in on a secret side of Steve Rogers that’s for just a select few. And anyone who can’t see that is an idiot, and you don’t deserve them. You deserve...” Tony shoves a hand through his hair and continues. “God, everything. You deserve the best of everything life has to offer,” Tony tells him. Steve can hardly process what he’s saying over the rush of blood through his ears. He’s suddenly fidgety and not sure what to do with his hands. 

“Who are you…” Steve can hardly process the fact that the conversation is happening at all, but what he really wanted to know is who it is that Tony thought couldn’t see Steve for who he was. “Who are you _ talking about _ not deserving me?” Steve finally manages to ask. 

Tony pauses. “I don’t… actually know? Bucky said you were coming in here because you were heartbroken over some guy, who, I might remind you, is a complete _ idiot _.” Tony is so adamant that Steve would be laughing if he had enough air left in his lungs to do so. “You’re the best person I know, Steve,” Tony says again. 

“I’m not a good guy, Tony,” Steve promises. Most of the alcohol he’d consumed throughout the night is wearing off, leaving him much too sober for a conversation he had been sure, up until a few minutes ago, he would never actually have. But even without it, a kind of bravery overwhelms him, now that Tony started all this. 

“Of course you are,” Tony argues, face defiant. “You’re _ Steve _.”

“I’m not a good guy,” Steve repeats, “because I’m about to do something that might ruin everything, might make my best friend hate me. I’m going to kiss someone, and we’re both a little drunk, and I probably shouldn’t but I _ want _ to so I’m going to,” Steve informs him. 

“Your best… You’re going to kiss _ Bucky? _” Tony looks crestfallen and Steve hates it, can’t explain it to him in words, so instead he just grabs the front of Tony’s now rumpled red shirt, and drags him in for a kiss. It’s messy, wet and warm and tastes like beer, but Steve is finally, finally getting what he wants, and for once, he’s not going to stop and think about it. Because Tony Stark, in this moment, is kissing him back, and it is glorious. 

Tony pulls away abruptly, chest heaving. “How drunk are you?” He demands. 

“Not very,” Steve says honestly. “You?” He’s breathless, Tony is _ so _ close and they just _ kissed _ like they’d been doing it all along and Tony didn’t push him away. Tony _ wanted it too. _ Steve’s head is spinning, dizzy with joy.

“Same. I’ve been more concerned with where you were all night to do much myself. I just… I don’t want you to wake up in the morning and hate me. I want this, more than anything, but I need to know I won’t… lose you,” Tony says, nearly a whisper into Steve’s lips. 

“I could never hate you,” Steve promises, capturing Tony’s lips again. “I’ve had four years to think about how much I wasn’t willing to lose you,” he murmurs. 

“Four years!” Tony exclaims. “But all this time you… we could have…” Tony gapes at him, and it’s adorable, really, if Steve hadn’t just earned the right to kiss Tony Stark when he wanted to, he would’ve taken much more pleasure in staring at that face, but for now, well...

“Anyone ever tell you you talk too much?” Steve says playfully, drawing Tony back in to him. 

Tony doesn’t get a chance to respond before Steve kisses him again, longer and deeper than before, kisses him with four years of feelings and want, and he can tell, without Tony saying it, that he’d wanted this just as long. 

Suddenly, Steve is in no rush to go to bed, not anymore. At least, not without Tony. 

They make their way back to the party, hand in hand, Steve delighting in the feel of Tony’s hand in his. Everyone seems overjoyed to see them together. People Steve only knew in passing called out _ finally _ , pointing out their matching costumes and saying how sweet it was. It _ was _ kind of sweet, now that Steve thought about it: even the halo doesn’t seem that bad anymore. 

When everyone _ finally _ leaves, Steve gives a contented sigh and pulls Tony down with him so that they’re sitting nearly on top of each other on the couch, Steve’s arms around him, warm and easy, like they belonged there. There was a mess of bottles and decorations and left over costume parts to deal with in the morning, but for now, they were content to end the night like they had so many others before this one: together. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr, I'm omg-just-peachy!


End file.
